Halloween is spreading like the branches of an ancient bay tree across my hometown of Rockhampton, Australia.

Last year was the first time I decided to put up a Halloween display outside my house, because, much to my amazement, the fun of the season was finally starting to rear its (decapitated) head. People really came to my house – in costume! It was truly something I never thought possible in Australia.

As my friend Lisa Morton will tell you, Australia is the only English-speaking nation that hasn’t completely embraced Halloween traditions. Well, Lisa, I’m happy to report that the times, …

HWA’s favorite artist Greg Chapman just made these fabulous posters to announce the winners and nominees in each category. Click on each one to view the larger, high-resolution (300 dpi) image. These are free to use and share; if you would like a file for use in producing a poster, please contact Greg.

Being from Australia, a land where celebrations centre more on sport than the change of seasons, I never had the pleasure of indulging in trick or treating. I knew of Halloween from seeing it on US television shows growing up, but it just wasn’t practised in Australia. “It was an American thing”.

That’s not to say that no one in Australia celebrates Halloween, but I’d hazard a guess that those that do are in the minority. However, I have over the past few years, seen a return to Halloween, but its re-emergence seems to be sadly rooted in commerciality.

For nearly three centuries, as the Black Death rampaged through Europe and the Reformation tore the Church apart, tens of thousands were arrested as witches and subjected to trial, torture, and execution, including being burned alive. This graphic novel examines the background; the methods of the witch hunters; who stood to profit; the brave few who protested; and how the trials finally faded as Enlightenment replaced fear and superstition with reason and science. The book examines famed witch hunters Heinrich Kramer, architect of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum; Matthew Hopkins, Englandâ

Shadows are pouring into his reality and his words are not his own anymore. He has been chosen to become a scribe for some of the worst creatures of the Underworld–the ones whose sole purpose is to torment human souls–The Dark Muses.

As Simon writes he falls deeper into the abyss and before long he has no sense of what is real. With the help of another scribe, old and mutilated, Simon comes to discover that his writing can mould people and places–that he can write things out